Lafou De Batea 2013
LaFou is a small producer in the Terra Alta region of Spain, one I was lucky to visit on a recent trip to the Catalan. An expressive, fruit-driven blend of old vine Garnacha Negra and Garnacha Carignan—it’s heavily laden in pie cherries, strawberries roasted in balsamic, olive tapenade, and warm spice. Intense and concentrated in […]
Ruffino Lumina Pinot Grigio 2015
Ruffino’s Lumina Pinot Grigio firmly falls in the great values category. The 2015 vintage is softly textured and crisp. Notes of Bosc pear and Golden Delicious apple are complicated by white flowers and lilting minerality. Easy drinking and bright, it’s a wine that offers versatility in spades—I paired this bottle with pappardelle with sauteed rapini […]
Seed Red Wine 2015
May 28, 2017—Bottle No. 0226 of a 120 case lot from this ultra-boutique winery, Seed. I first tasted this bottling six months ago, when it was still fairly closed—the profile remains unchanged—a heady melange of singed blueberries, black currants, sandalwood, and violets. It has the kind of lightness to it that one would expect from […]
King Estate Limited Edition Blanc de Noirs 2008
Aged Sir Lee for 26 months, King Estate’s 2008 Limited Edition White Black is finely wrought, with a delicate bead that gives rise to baked apples and orchard fruit notes, followed by buckwheat, dried marjoram, and whipped butter. Nice concentration on the palate, with eccentric rings of kumquat, sea foam, and sandstone, which impart a […]
Brooks Sunset View Eola-Amity Hills Riesling 2014
Brooks is one of a handful of Oregon wineries to have mastered Riesling. Every year, they offer small lots of single vineyard Rieslings like this beauty from Sunset View Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA—the vineyard that sits at a 290′ elevation on a south-facing slope. It’s expressive, deliciously layered in white peach and golden […]
Ponzi Vineyards Pinot Noir Reserve 2013
An utterly breathtaking, seductive nose perfumed in rose water, rhubarb, black cherry, incense, anise, cola, sous bois. The underlying structure is there in Ponzi’s 2013 Pinot Noir Reserve, in the form of ultra-fine tannins framing out a wine of tremendous grace and elegance. Fruit on the palate—a tumble of red and black— is overtaken by […]
Notable Unoaked Chardonnay 2016
Notable’s crisp and fruity version plays opposite it’s oaky-buttery Chardonnay label. It’s softly textured on the nose and palate with undertones of ripe honeydew melon, green apple, and d’Anjou pear. It’s a fairly straightforward wine—I’m perhaps favoring the oaked Chardonnay, simply because there’s more layered complexity and texture with the judicious addition of oak. Regardless, […]
Souverain Merlot 2014
Fruit-lovers rejoice. The 2014 Souverain Merlot is an overturned basket of berries—blueberries, blackberries, black cherries tinged with spice and vanilla. It’s equally expressive on the palate without being heavy, the fruit here is more or less hugged by nimble and fine tannins that express something along the lines of black tea at the close. A […]
Ferraton Pere & Fils Côtes du Rhône Samorëns Rosè 2016
Like the perfect accessory, Ferraton Pere & Fils’ 2016 Samorëns Rosé matches my reading glasses. I sit here in my studio, pondering this Provencal pink, I am reminded of how much I love these wines despite a long, chilly spring in the Willamette Valley. It’s a wine that manages to be energetic and delicate all […]
Columbia Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 2014
Lavishly perfumed with sumptuous blackberry, black currant, lavender pastille, camphor and, interestingly a dusting of talcum powder. On the palate, this Cab-dominant blend is classic Washington State in expression, medium weight, with a juicy black fruit core. That chalky note reemerges towards the finish, giving the impression that the tannins are slightly powdery and fine. […]